Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Search This Blog

GENEWS ONLINE is the online edition of the official publication of The UPLB Genetics Society. The UPLB Genetics Society, also known as GeneSoc, is a duly recognized academic organization at UP Los Banos. The organization strives to promote and create awareness about the science of Genetics in the Philippines.

Diamed-Illumina, PGC sponsor Agrigenomics sympo

by Jickerson Lado (Integrons)

The ‘-omics’ era is here.

With the leading global genome sequencing company, Illumina, exclusively distributed by Diamed in the Philippines, in partnership
with the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) – Agriculture, a symposium on genomic
advancements in agriculture was held in UPLB this July 10 at Umali Auditorium,
SEARCA.

More than a hundred attendees coming from different
institutions and agencies in and out of UPLB completely filled the venue. The
program started with Dr. Rita Laude, PGC-Agriculture Program Director, welcoming
the participants and emphasizing the on-going projects of PGC-Agri.

Dr. Cindy Lawley explaining the ubiquity ofsequencing and its applications.

Dr. Cindy Lawley, Senior Manager, Market Development of Illumina, opened the sympo proper by discussing genomic
selection in agriculture species, stressing the significance of the approach in
improving US dairy industry. It was followed by Dr. Zenaida Magbanua, DOST and UP
Balik Scientist, explaining the use of next generation sequencing (NGS) for transcriptomics
(total RNA) and miRNAomics (total miRNA) in studying the interaction of rice
and its pest, bacterial panicle blight. Dr. Magbanua also serves as a
consultant to the Coconut Genome Sequencing Project of PGC.

For the second half of the program, Dr. Lawley focused
on agrigenomic technologies comparing sequence- and assay-based genotyping, and
featuring Illumina NGS sequencers with notes on assembling and annotating sequence
output to make sense of data. Dr. Lawley mentioned that this is also her first
time in the Philippines and remarked that “Filipinos are smiling and courteous people.”
An open forum ended the sympo proper.

Mr. Alden Arellano, general manager of Diamed and a proud
GeneSoc alumnus (Batch Snurps) posed a question in his closing remarks, “If
research is the journey, what is the destination?” pertaining to the mantra no
great journey is done overnight and simple steps are pivotal. He answered by citing
several researches in dairy science, crops specifically rice, and the improvement
of Philippine mangoes.

About Diamed

Established
in 1998, Diamed Enterprise has become a trusted and reliable provider of Life
Science and Diagnostics products in the Philippines. With cutting edge
companies in its portfolio, it has accompanied the country's top scientists in
performing the most advanced researches. The company is now boosting its
Molecular Diagnostics with AIT MDX, Vienna Lab and In Vivo Scribe Technologies.
(diamed.com.ph)Diamed
has been one of the generous sponsors of major activities of GeneSoc like the
Genetics Camp (GenCamp) and the National Intercollegiate Genetics Quiz Contest
(NIGQC).

The DNA Backbone

Total Pageviews

About The UPLB Genetics Society

The UPLB Genetics Society, also known as GeneSoc, is a duly recognized academic organization in UPLB that was established in 1983. Through the years, the organization strives to promote and create awareness about the science of Genetics in the Philippines.